The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity

date: 2008-05-01

European Commission, DG Environment

Natural ecosystems supply valuable goods
and services to society. Examples are carbon storage in forests and the supply
of sufficient amounts of clean freshwater. Loss of natural ecosystems and their
biodiversity presents therefore also a loss of valuable goods and services.

The study The Economics of Ecosystems
and Biodiversity (TEEB) was initiated to analyse the global economic
benefit of biological diversity, the costs of the loss of biodiversity and
ecosystem services, and the costs of failure to take protective measures versus
the costs of effective conservation.

TEEB was endorsed by the G8+5 leaders in June 2007. Findings from the first phase of TEEB were presented at the high-level segment of the 9th
Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn,
Germany, in May 2008.

GLOBIO contribution

As a contribution to TEEB, a consortium of
reknowned European institutes conducted the study Cost of Policy Inaction for
Biodiversity (COPI Biodiversity). In COPI GLOBIO was applied to calculate
expected biodiversity impacts of a ‘business as usual’ scenario. Consortium
partners calculated the impact of the losses on the potential of ecosystems to
deliver goods and services, and consequently the economic value.

The scenario analysis shows that
biodiversity loss is likely to continue over the coming decades, especially in
savannah and steppe, but also in tropical and boreal forests. By
2050, the remaining biodiversity will be mainly located in deserts, the polar
regions and boreal forests of Russia
and Canada.